Bridge Commission Ownership (1920s–present)
With the opening of the New York – Pennsylvania Joint Bridge Commission in the 1920s to buy out these bridges from private ownership, the tolls along the bridges of the Delaware were beginning to come to an end. The Commission offered the Bridge Company an offer of $19,542.22 (1920s USD). The company took the offer and under new ownership, the tolls were eliminated. The bridge had more activity after the elimination of tolls and business continued to prosper. With the new owners, the bridge was kept under routine maintenance, and the bridge has continued to maintain a strong structure. Even with the floods from Hurricanes Connie and Diane of 1955 and the 1960s, the bridge survived with little to no structural damage. From May to October 1986, the commission closed the bridge to do some renovations. The wooden deck was replaced, the entire bridge was painted, and new guide rails were constructed. The only thing is that the 3 ton (6000 lb) weight limit remained after the revamping. On November 14, 1988, the bridge was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
On January 19, 2010, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation shut down access to the Skinners Falls – Milanville Bridge when a truss member of the bridge was found to be defective. The bridge was supposed to undergo rehabilitation of the truss members later in the year for $200,000 (2010 USD) and a larger $8 million (2015 USD) rehabilitation in 2015. Currently, traffic has been diverted to the nearby Narrowsburg-Darbytown Bridge and Damascus-Cochecton Bridge. The Department of Transportation plans to reopen the old structure in February, once repairs have been made. As of July 2011, the bridge has not been reopened.
Read more about this topic: Skinners Falls – Milanville Bridge
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